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Thursday, August 30, 2007

This is the topic that has been on the mind of every TCU fan for the past couple of weeks, that everyone seems to be afraid of talking about: What the fuck is going on with Tommy Blake? He left the team to go back home to Aransas Pass a few weeks back for "personal reasons", which could be just about anything.

Baylor and Texas fans were quick to assume it meant that he eith A) failed a drug test or B) that he was dodging a drug test. Having watched the kid play for 3 years, I understand the Bears' and Longhorns' fear of #97 as their rationalization for jumping to such conclusions (mat not included).

All seemed to be back to normal when Blake returned to campus with Coach Patterson, who had flown down to Aransas Pass to retrieve him. But after returning briefly to practice, Blake has now missed 5 consecutive days of practice with what TCU is calling a "stomach bug".

Now, it's entirely possible that Blake really has caught some sort of stomach ailment. His bookend, Chase Ortiz, missed some practice time earlier in fall practice with such a sickness. But where there is smoke, there is often fire- and the rumor mill that heated up during Blake's first absence from the team is running at full force once again, and the possible explanations being thrown about are as bizarre as they are numerous.

At this point, though, the speculation has far surpassed the threshold of tired-head. Patterson & company have long been tight-lipped about injuries and other personnel matters, and the only answers he's given about Tommy's situation have been canned and vague. It's possible we'll never know what is going on with Tommy right now- all we can do is hope & pray for him as he goes through whatever it is that he's going through right now. If he plays, great. If not, our team will overcome his absence.

First of all I would like to welcome myself to the new board. Now with all the welcome formalities out of the way lets get down to business. Kick off is at 5:00. The tail gate spot is in the exact same place as last year. For those of you that don't know or can't remeber, it is lot 3 spot 229. It will be BYOB, but we do not want to run out of alcohol so bring extra. Need some feed back on ideas for chairs, food, table (carter if we can use yours from last year it would be great), tv, grill, and freshman girls. Colia has a big tent so shade will be provided. One major issue is that Turk did not renew his parking spot so we will have substantally less room. Because of this I think we should probably park a pickup in the actual spot. Looking forward to the pretailgate party.

As you all might know, willy bob, sordini, and myself now live pretty close to the stadium. We would like to invite everyone over for a pretailgate to Taylors tailgate (if he still has it, not sure). We were thinking of grilling out, getting f'ed up , playing some pool on the newly renovated purple pool table and then walking to the stadium. Food will be provided, just bring your own booze. If anyone has any other ideas, let us know. Until then look forward to seeing everyone, and lets get ready for another great horned frog football season.

After practice Wednesday, Patterson called out his defense, which he had sit out part of practice and then stay late to go through drills after the rest of the team had left.

It’s not the first time I’ve thrown them off the field in the last 10 years and it won’t be the last,â€ said Patterson, who appeared pretty ticked. If they don’t come to play they’re going to get embarrassed Saturday

Hopefully they'll get in-line before they have to face Baylor and who ever the hell their quarterback is.

I had a drink a couple of nights ago with one of TCU's development directors and I have some good news to pass along. As you all know the south end zone project is well underway and now the rest of the improvements have been approved by the board. She said the design has not yet been finalized and there are still a couple of options. She did mention that they plan on keeping with the original design and hope to make it the Camden yards of college football. No final date has been announced either, but it is going to happen. In summary, start saving some money because one of us is going to have to buy a box in the near future.

There have been 15 variations of TCU Football helmets since they stopped using leather in 1960. My goal here is to define our subscriber's favorite and start to lobby to bring it back, if not for a season, at least a game. As our team continues to win on a yearly basis and build it's claim as a BCS conference quality team, we are also builing our case to throw that shit back every once in a while.

So, I have divided up the helmets into 3 categories of 5. The first round will narrow down the Battle of the Helmets to 3 helmets which will be voted on to get the top 2, then there will be a championship. It makes sense in my head, just vote and everything will take care of itself. Let the battle begin, here are the first contestants: (See corresponding poll to left)